Hanlon's Razor would point to incompetence, and from this administration as an explanation that fits the pattern / seems likely. I'd also throw in an assumption that they're reaching for any threat possible to shake them down / get bribes and so on.

This episode indicates that the Trump admin's trust in "AI" is conditional. Hegseth can understand that an "AI" has limitations - he's demanding certain limitations be removed. Therefore, any time someone in the Trump admin uses the excuse that "AI said so, nothing can be done about it", we know that's a lie. The use of "AI" instead of human judgement is itself based upon n human judgement and biases.

Hegseth really tipped his cards here.